Contribution of Increasing CO sub(2) and Climate to Carbon Storage by Ecosystems in the United States

New and detailed historical climate data were used to model the impacts of increasing carbon dioxide and climate change on net carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems of the US for the period 1895-1993. Findings from an ensemble of three models agree to within 25% for the years 1980-93. These models suggest a land carbon sink from CO sub(2) and climate impacts of 0.08 gigatons of C per year. Best estimates for the complete sink from inventory data are some three times larger, indicating that several processes can exert large impacts, including regrowth on abandoned agricultural lands and in forests harvested prior to 1980. Researchers found that the modeled sink varied by roughly 100% from year to year as the result of climate variability.